The present invention generally relates to packages, particularly to packages formed from a blank of a single layer of material, and specifically to packages including an expandable top opening.
Many dry ingredients for baking or the like such as but not limited to pancake mix, biscuit mix, flour, and the like are sold in packaging including a liner which holds the ingredients surrounded by a carton. The typical shape of packages for such dry ingredients is a rectangular parallelepiped to provide narrow widths allowing the package to be held in one hand and to provide large face panels for product identification and promotion. Additionally, such packaging typically holds more than one serving of dry ingredients. Thus, the baker would desire to extract the desired amount of dry ingredients from the package while leaving the balance of the dry ingredients in the package. The width of the top opening of the conventional package is insufficient to allow insertion of a measuring cup through the top opening to the interior of the package. Thus, one method of removing the dry ingredients from the interior of the package was to insert a spoon through the top opening and dig the ingredients out for placement in the measuring cup. However, if a large amount of dry ingredients is desired, such an approach was very time consuming. Alternately, the dry ingredients were attempted to be poured from the package into a measuring cup or the like by tipping the package. However, dry ingredients do not flow evenly like fluids but rather have an avalanche-type flow such that spillage is often a problem. To avoid these problems, often the package was emptied into a canister or the like, with the package then being discarded and the dry ingredients removed from the canister. However, it can be appreciated that once the package is discarded, there may no longer be identification of the particular dry ingredients in the canister, and the baking instructions from the carton are no longer available. Likewise, the consumer may not wish to have canisters for each type of dry ingredient product desired due to the cost of such canisters and the difficulty in storing such canisters. Additionally, the sealing and other attributes of the liner and the package are not obtained after the dry ingredients are emptied into the canister.
Thus, a need exists for a package which allows removal of the dry ingredients from the interior of conventionally shaped packages in a similar manner as allowed by canisters while still maintaining the advantages of prior packages and specifically does not require the dry ingredients to be poured or emptied from the package for use. In a preferred aspect, there is a need for a package which has a top opening which is expandable when it is desired to remove the dry ingredients from the interior of the package by a measuring cup which could not have been inserted into the top opening in its normal, static condition.